As if the defacing of the north walls of the Munoz Building and theold Niles Town Hall buildings with spraypaint wasn't bad enough, ourlocal vandals are now scratching up plate glass windows in downtownNiles with diamond scribes. I counted a total of eight large plateglass windows this afternoon that have been scrawled on by some ofthese local criminals who have been raised with no morals, decency, orethics.

Two windows are on the front of Mr. Mikey's and they happened lastnight, Thursday, as they were not damaged when I looked at them onWednesday afternoon. The other six happened previous to that.

Sadly, while normal people are sleeping soundly, these drugged-uplow-lives are out committing their unrelenting criminal vandalism ofour neighborhood. While I can, and do, clean up spraypainted vandalismand paint markers or chisel-tip marker damage, there is nothing thatcan be done for scratched up windows but to replace them at aprohibitively high cost. The only good part of that cost is that if wecan catch the creeps who do this, they can be prosecuted for felonyvandalism when the overall damage they do totals $1,500 or more.

If your store or home windows get scratched up with initials or tags,PLEASE call the P.D. and file a report through the dispatcher. Only bythese kind of records being accumulated can we ensure that if/whensome of these losers are caught in the act, the financial totals willbe serious enough for the offense to be a felony, rather than amisdemeanor.

Also, as I've mentioned before, if traveling through Niles during thehours from 1-4 a.m., and you see anyone suspicious, call the P.D. at790-6800 and ask for the dispatcher. Report the suspicious activityand they'll probably roll a car. During those wee hours of the morningthings are generally pretty slow otherwise.